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The act of communicating or channeling spirits in special rituals. These rites usually involve both a shaman, or spirit medium, and a holy person or someone pure in spirit. While their origins are not clear, scholars believe the rites may have come to Japan from China through early Buddhism. They were practiced in Japan from ancient times but were officially discouraged by the government at the end of the 19th century.

The best-known ritual, dating from the ninth century and traced to China, was called the Abisha-ho. Four boys or girls around eight years old, all with markless bodies, prepared themselves for a week. The children kept their bodies pure by eating carefully chosen foods. After a special bath, the children put camphor (a kind of wood) in their mouths and then stood on an altar. Attendants prayed a special mantra and burned incense. The boys or girls could then be asked questions about the future or other things and were believed to respond with the truth. This rite was practiced by both the Shingon and Tendai sects of Buddhism, and there are accounts of emperors using it to answer questions about their reign.- source : www.fofweb.com

- quoteSacred Places of Japan:
The syncretistic Shinto-Buddhist sects gather at Mount Yamabushi, where a mountain ascetic tradition flourishes. At Mount Ontake, a favorite place for yo or pilgrim clubs to gather, mediums assemble and perform the yorigito ritual to enable them to predict the future and manifest other psychic powers. Farther north, the Ainu of Hokkaido represent the people of Japan with a core shamanic religion closest to Indians of North America, however according to Hitoshi Watanabe (1972), "there are no longer living Ainu who have (fully) personally experienced traditional Ainu life." - snip -
To the south of Sendai, high in the interior mountains, is another spectacular sei-chi, Akyuotaki Park which protects and honors a spectacular waterfall. Visitors to the park may walk down a simple gravel path to see the cascading water, as in a park in place in the world, or they may take the path that leads to the Shinto shrine which honors the god, Fudo, said to be the shaman's god, the god of fire, who stands for truth and justice. Taking this second path the visitor is transformed from a tourist to a pilgrim. - source : www.jamesswan.com -James A. Swan

- quoteOntake Shinkō
In addition, sacred mountains connected with the Ontake cult, such as Hakkai, Hotaka and Ryōgami, developed locally over an area from northern Kantō to Niigata. The reason for the expansion of the influence of the confraternities was due to shamanic practices called oza, which were yorigito rituals similar to those performed by shugenja to call the kami into the body of a medium, and propagation activities that promised that the soul of the believer would be drawn to Ontake after death. - source : Nakayama Hajime Kokugakuin 2007